Is it possible to become a one-person unicorn?
(e.g., to build the company that is worth $1B)<p>Let's do the figures.<p>1) Let's count for simplicity that project valuation equals to 10 Annual Revenues. That means that the annual income should be $100M, and monthly income is ~$8M<p>2) $8M means 400'000 clients paying $20/month.<p>3) 400'000 paying customers means 20'000'000 total users. (since average conversion is about 2%).<p>4) There are 5.5 billion internet users worldwide. So 20M users are 0.35% of the total audience.<p>So, probably, it is achievable to find a specific niche product for these particular 0.35% of the users that is possible to build solo. AI-powered solutions fits even better to this concept.
assuming one-person means one employee, i think it's possible if you allow contractors. however, even then i think it would probably be more economical to hire employees. there's just so much diversity of skill needed to maintain and monitor a service at that scale. of course it depends on what the business is. maybe there is a niche that works.<p>the way you present the scenario isn't conducive to achieving "one-person unicorn" though. the way to do it would be for an already successful entrepreneur to raise a lot of VC money at a $1B valuation before having a product or customers at all.
Possible? Yes. Likely? Is the end goal to own a unicorn? Become a billionaire? Or something else? What are you optimizing for?<p><i>I am rich and have no idea what to do</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42579873">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42579873</a> - Jan 2025
This means that you will be dealing with 20M humans and 400k paying ones. They come with a lot of requests, questions and demands. From many jurisdictions. Not to forget tax laws.<p>At some point you will find it easier and cheaper to integrate rather than buy every service. And maybe even more fun to work with a great team.